In Fall 2019 Reuters Top 100: The World’s Most Innovative Universities with The University of Washington listed at no. 5. Additionally, the University of Washington maintained its no. 10 spot on the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global Universities rankings, released Fall 2019. The UW is ranked no. 2 among U.S. public institutions. These are wonderful honors for our university, but how do our faculty and alumni fair?
In October 2020, PLoS One Biology published an updated ranking of a huge number of scientists across virtually all scientific disciplines. We are happy to report that several faculty and alumni from our PhD program were included. Within archaeology, three people with strong UW ties ranked within the top 25 (out of approximately 10,500 people who have published in the area). These three are Lee Lyman, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Missouri (UW PhD 1982, ranked no. 5), Donald K. Grayson, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, UW (ranked no. 18), and Dave Meltzer, Henderson-Morrison Professor of Prehistory and Director of Graduate Studies in Anthropology, Southern Methodist University (UW PhD 1984, ranked no. 25).
Jack Broughton, Professor of Anthropology, University of Utah (UW PhD, 1995, ranked no. 136) also makes the list for the sub-field archaeology. Additionally, Nina Jablonski, Evan Pugh Professor of Anthropology, Penn State (UW PhD 1981, ranked no. 63) is listed among all anthropologists.
We think this is a remarkable accomplishment.